Unsettled Minds Psychology and the American Search for Spiritual Assurance, 1830-194° CHRISTOPHE R G. WHITE Q3 ForClay alld Carole Wlt ilr alld ill //Irmor!! of Arlhur IlndNl4ra lOllS olC.lifornil Press,one of the most diStingui shed ~I n the UnitedStares. enri ch~ s lives aro und the Idwnci nS Khol.rship in the humanities, social sciences, ..-KienCtS. I~ .clivilies are supported by the UC Pres s IIIdbyphilanrhropic conrribut ions from individuals .......... For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu, Contents List of l/Iuslrations ;, Acknowledgments " Introduction , 't , Minds Intensely Unsettled ' ) a. Fragments of Truth ). ). Nervous Energies 75 ,. Neuromuscular Christians ", ,. "A Multitude of Superstitions andCrudities" ')4 ,,8 6. Suggestive Explanations ,,. Epilogue: Intensely Unsettled-Again Notes ") Index ... Illustrations 1. Henry Ward Beecher and Lyman Beecher, circa '1845-60 • 2. Mapp ing splti tual and religious capacities on the head " J. Seei ng secret inn er th ings on the outer self » 4. An drew Jackson Davis's map of the spiri tual self 5. Experimentally probing the senses and the soul " 6. Faith lowers the heart rate "88 7. " Faith Generators and Fear Destroyers" 8, 8. Puck cartoon lampooning America's athleticobsessions u, 9- The ergog raph measured muscular work and fatigue 1.0. Theodore Roosevelt illustrating how neuromuscular control facilitates the proper expression of emotions ", n . "Moral and spiritual vivisection"; Starbuck's first conversion survey ')9 12. The Harvard Divinity School class of 1895 ,,0 1-). The neurology of revival and self-control ,,8 14. Testing suggestibility with electr ic shock '15. Pamphlet promoting scientific ways of Ihinking about '" religious ccnvereon 16. M.pping the_ of sol_ '7 P10tnng 'mob- ~ 18. Advenbcment forHoward Hisginf.lecture "Among the Spirits" 1:9. E.L. House'slecturt' "The Psychology of Rehgion" 20. Applying spiritual forces to the body ox XII I Ackn(IwltJSmrllB Introduction .od""",,,Iofyio, ,"","'y and h" d woek. David H, lI in particular helped .a.pe the book III almost every stage along the way. I.bo than k the communIty of students and scholars at Qumcy Hou se, .,hom Tracy and I lived for seven years while in graduate school, We tlO U~ of conviviality, intellecl\lal stimulation, and [not least) """litdthere,ng helpwe. rt' research librarians and stude nt assistants who I racked ~ sources. gave advice, and in other ways helped prepare book- I thank librarians from the followin g archives and libraries: the """"""_H.",,nl ",oolog,,,,1 Lib"'y, ,10, c l" k Univ",i'y Archives, tue ConB"S'"on.' Lib",y . ndM,h;v" (BMWn, Mass.]. ,10,Epi"op.1 Diocese A.a.',. ("""on, M",.j, H" v" d Un;v,,""y A"loiv", Houglo' on Library, the Oberlin college Archives, the Ohio Historical Society, the Springfield Whath is the fate of young people wh Coll~ Archives, Widener Library, the University of Southern California 'hemselves exhausted or bewildered\"y earnestly <0 believe but find t ese unsettled young believers y their parents' religions] Can ArchiveS, the Yale University Archives, the Yale Divinity School Archives 'hildha:;~m~'ll y and Special CollcCi ions, and the University of Iowa Special Collections. A ,;g or useful from ,10", recover somethi ng comfort- ~rch a together on older theologies se k" all s? Can those who have given u ,.....bet of assistantS did difficult detective work and even less ng taSks without complaint-Jeannie Alexander, Scott Hodgman, Fmd new ways of achieving relig'O,u: no: to reform but obliterate thel: what.raw w materialsmater! can wholl new ~ c..ertamty or assurancezHow? QUI of' LoJtottO. Kat Milby. Holly Phillips, Ari Stern, and Trig Thront veit. ~f my edItOrs at the University of California Press were Issues such as the meaning th views on Issuesof crucial importance pofeHi0n8 and patient. I am g rateful especially for Reed ties of human nature, and the problmoral life, the nature and possibili: o.ped? This book examines these :m. so unsolvable, of death, be devel­ 0JI80ifI8 enthusiesmL for the project, Kaficia Pivirorr o's help in 1Jv~s.of nineteenth- and twentLeth~e~:~ons by t~rning to the religious ,.orill8 this book toWard product ion , a nd Jacqueli ne Voli n's incredible rellglous traditions and turned I . ry ~mencans who rejected older v IttfJItiO" to det ail as publicati on deadli nes neared. It is a privil ege to pub­ formulate new ideas about the se~/cledntlfl c psychologies to help them lith thlf book with the University of Ca lifornia Press. rual growth. It begins with the ani new pracnces concerning spin- nin t 10 un serr ed reflect ' f My greatest personal debt s a re to fam ily and friends, who over the e cent -century Christians wh f Ions 0 a group of early- mnforced my flagging en ergi es and always supported my work. All 10 their parents' evangelical Cal .a. ound themselves unable to conform of self-doubt and anxious r I' . us refle Chrisnans In this situation full Whites and Bagleysand our m any friends-the Ahdiehs. Avanes­ .. e IglOUs re leetions I. J(janis, Sharifis, and Ya ma r tinos in particular-have sup­ ~USPIClOns outward, pronouncin thei ,eventua lyredirected their WIY through. Collea gues at Georgia State University's irranonal, or in other way' d f g . err natal evangelicalism unhealthy older tradiItions propelled heem ecnve.i Qu ickly. the erri intense- dislike for' especially o ur cha ir, Tim Renick. lIII;ioo" Studies and 10 I ... t emm oovel di - ~r to support m e m ake t ime available for t eo ogica! reformulat ions d dati rrecnons, fueling a range of and of th an emen anon s and es e seIf and spirit ual growth I f II 10' ' peCla' IIy new views MyfsDuty, andespecially my wife, Tracy, will never tion d . 0 ow t elf chang ino . .. Jd ,;;~n ~ew foemul"'on' carefully. -e-e "m_,..pira- my grantude; she has be,n unfailingly support;" of e liberal believers were aided in hei . - myoademiccareer more generally, even when bo,h rook three principal ways b hi. t err sptrll ual innovations in for mapping and contr Y, PSycho ogical sciences and their new methods ~=~;oth<t prionries that vee share. Our tWO boys can" .Iong" , a 109 r e emotional self F . lf d i ve~- gles sometimes suggested he exi . rrst, scenn It psycholo- : and middle ofthe process, and they h ave been rel iable ~h" I e existence of powerful spiritual energies remmders of the best t h ings in life. Finally,h"for'\la i between scientists and bel ievers, I thankfBsecience a uall d k potfIbl • including what I now 0 e raodpareots. 2 I 'ntroduction Introduction I ) and mental faculties that captured or hu sbanded the m. Christians labor­ to produce new f' . ~ore ways 0 seeing clearo~hrl relie t Ing with Calvinist convict ions of impotence and inabilit y embraced th is mapping precisely religious IglOUS emOtions,. new ways of competencies and guarantees J g . ' new waysofacqUiring religious po5lubility as a liberation. Second, scientific psychologie s demysufied th e . fl - . am interested th I ' . science con let or religious d I' h . Ynen, ess rn the rehgron- confounding inner spaces of th e self by offe ring new ways to det ect, mea­ ., ecune r an I amin j . sure, and map them. In particul ar, scient ific psychologi es li nked menta l reItglOUS Americans, and especial! relrei . rymg to make clear how tress fallh.1 y IglOUS liberals, used science to but- (and spiritual) states to the body, bri nging mysterious emo tions a nd reli- gious states to the su rfaces of the sel f, where they could be more easily , ~ t is true, of course, that sometimes effons insights for religious purpos f I d to reshape psychological undertrood and refl ected upo n. In ner conditions could be discerned in the ses a tere or fail d I I enccs tha t believers used, . f beli ne comp ete y, and the sci- contoUt'$ of the head or body. They could be seen in one's characteristic °rem orre elief bee f d consternation. This is a cruci I f arne sources 0 oubr and acdtudes, facial expressions, and post ures. Thus, new sciences made con­ cons tan tly 10 control scte ra Pdar~ 0 my story as well. Believers battled ndins inner spaces vi sib le again. Third, by developing new ways of ence an ItS mean~;~:ly' a~SdI:S:i:~~es. ohial:iJ>,l .bout mental and nervous functioning, di fferent psychologies resu lt was unexpec.te.d, strangely ironic, or the end liberal, fashion new guidelines concern ing: spiritual health, over­ The gro up of religious Americans in which I am interested d . cnce Ior new m h f .. turne tOSCI­ GIn'll em. .nd resisting modem temptations. In short, religious liberals .. _ etap ors or spmt and spiritual growth. Essentially roman- ncs, religious that rve f .....tdrentific psychologies to develop d earer ways of th inki ng abou t the self 5 . hliberals believed nature was , I' ~ WI',h SpJrlIUa I orccs oence was t e way to probe carefully these forces and the eternal truths and betu'r methods for developing its spiritual capacities. The powerful they reflected. For example, in the case of phrenology, the first scientific newdiscoutses they produced changed how twentiet h- cent u ry Americans psychology, sciencehelped liberals establish an alternative mental philoso­ thought.bout healthy and unhealthy forms of religion , fai th and healing, phy, one anchored no~ i~ dogmatic truths about depravitybut in the struggle p:ndet', irrationality, and race.